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Bloggers on the left and the right shared their theories on why Haley Barbour decided not to run for president.
Conservatives attributed Barbour’s bowing out to low poll numbers and, as Barbour himself noted in a statement, his lack of passion for the race. They also looked at the effect his absence would have on the rest of the 2012 field.
NRO’s Robert Costa noted that the dissolution of Team Barbour due to, as he wrote, meager poll results, means a new slate of “free agent” operatives and donors are up for grabs by other candidates.
Barbour hadn’t made much of an impression in the polls, clocking in at around 1 percent, but the former Republican National Committee chairman had an outsize influence in the world of GOP insiders. Today, other candidates have one less competitor to worry about and a host of liberated political professionals looking for somewhere to land.
Later in his piece, Costa also wrote that Barbour’s other considerations for dropping out probably included his wife’s reluctance and “the political freight he carried as a former lobbyist and Southern governor potentially running against the nation’s first African-American president... Barbour also had the challenge of representing the establishment at a time of anti-establishment ferment.”
Red State’s Dan McLaughlin seemed to praise Barbour for realizing that he might be good on paper but didn’t want it enough, before he got too committed.
Add Haley Barbour now to the list of people who simply were not willing to make that 100% commitment, and Gov. Barbour knows himself and the task well enough not to pretend otherwise and run halfway.
McLaughlin also speculated on who else is out there, if not Barbour.
The roster of candidates who are genuinely serious GOP contenders - especially if you look at who has won a statewide election some time in the past decade - remains limited. All eyes will now turn to the people who remain on the fence (Sarah Palin, Mitch Daniels, Mike Huckabee) or denying they’re interested (Chris Christie, Rick Perry, Jeb Bush, Paul Ryan) to see who else might round out the field. In particular, the field now seems especially thin on Southerners for a party with so many officeholders in the region.
Hot Air’s Allahpundit suggested Barbour’s decision was not because he wasn’t passionate about a bid, but because he is a clear-eyed pragmatist who calculated that he had a better chance of getting a job in the White House not by running himself, but by hooking on to another candidate’s rising star – perhaps that of Barbour’s friend and rumored candidate, Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels.
[I]f Daniels does run, he’s now practically guaranteed Barbour’s endorsement and fundraising help. Barbour might not make it to the White House on his own, but if he joins forces with Mitch the Knife, he could get there as VP, chief of staff, or in any number of other roles. He’s a bottom-line kind of guy, and that’d be a shrewd bottom-line calculation. Now all Daniels has to do is play ball.
Liberal bloggers chose to take shots at elements of Barbour’s personal and professional life that would have hurt him as the race gained momentum.
John Cole at Balloon Juice:
Looks like the polling numbers for “fat redneck” came in at less than awesome.
Daily Kos’ David Nir also mentioned some of Barbour’s liabilities when discussing his dropping out:
Personally, I never saw a path to victory for Barbour, not with his love for the Confederate flag and his long history as a lobbyist. But for a while, I had imagined that Barbour had conned himself into thinking he could win. I guess reality - namely, the reality that he'd be trading a cushy retirement for the rigors of the campaign trail with a limited chance at winning - won out.
Nir also asked whom, of the remaining presidential hopefuls, Barbour’s decision would benefit most.
Now speculation will turn to who else in the GOP field Barbour's absence benefits most. Is it Mike Huckabee, who probably has the greatest regional appeal in the South? Tim Pawlenty, who, like Barbour, has managed to fool the Beltway into thinking he's "reasonable"?
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The 'fire' in his belly sure fizzled out fast when he realized he would NEVER be able to get past the vetting process!
I am kind of sad though - the thought of a good old boy running against the first Black President would of made for some GREAT debates & photo op's! ;o)
There is a joke in there somewhere about exactly what kind of 'impression' Boss Hogg would have made.
He said he didn't have "a fire in his belly". Big belly; little fire. That's a good reason not to run.
Ron: Are you saying that Barbour's a victim of Planned Parenthood?
You sly boots. THAT would one VERY good reason. Love it. ;-)
It would have been mighty interesting - seeing a man from Mississippi running against Barack Obama.
It would have been quite a moment in the 21st Century.
Because we all know who would have beaten who.
It's moments like this when I realize what a long long long long way we have come.
Barbour would have been a credible candidate had he endured the same "vetting process" as President Obama did in 2008...and personally, I prefer someone other than Haley Barbour to run against President Obama in 2012.
But, heck...even me and Feisty could have "endured" the rigorous "vetting process" that candidate Obama did.
lol
Almost anyone could have.
Even the Feisty Redhead!
ROFLMAO!
Finally some common ground bag boy!
Who will EVER forget the months of 24/7 Reverend Wright footage?
Don't like that one, try the palling around with terrorist, Bill Ayers meme on for size!
I mean hell, there still rooting around for his Birth Certificate!
I think ol Haley decided that, should they look in his closet, they were sure to find a set of white sheets & matching pointy hat! ;o)
Whether you want to believe it or not...
There has been NO candidate in history that went through the vetting process the way President Obama has and it continues to this VERY day!
This isn't rocket science.
When your state is pretty much dead last in everything that matters, it's tough to run on your accomplishments. For someone outside of Mississippi, its model doesn't seem very attractive. It's tough to explain why God wants your state to be last in everything, and harder still to convince people that He wants the same for you.
In short, the only direction was "out."
Didn't stop Obama.
Get your story straight. Your side thinks he's from Kenya, not Mississippi.
Shouldn't pick on Smiff, AM. Some joker will come on here and ask you to refute what she said about Obama being 'dead last' in EVERYTHING THAT MATTERS (whatever that means?). Hey- anybody got an 'accomplishments' list they can share here? Seems like I remember a few beign mentioned his first year on the job as Prez.....
JoAnna, Obama's state wasn't last in everything. And he wasn't an ex-governor. What's your point?
@ dbo -- "Everything that matters"? -- res ipsa loquitur. Everything.
Someone like JoAnna doesn't understand what that means, but it's for sure that you do, DBO.
Well, Obama sure is taking this Leading From Behind thing seriously
http://blogs.abcnews.com/thenumbers/2011/04/new-low-for-obama-on-afghanistan.html
Who knew anybody actually aspired to be last?
I don't think it was Barbour. That happens to be Obama's forte.
Arkansas was dead last in most categories, but that didn't stop Bill Clinton.
Arkansas is low (not last like MS) in many categories, but Clinton did work hard to improve that state's lot, and Mike Huckabee wasn't able to build on Clinton's improvements, but it didn't stop (and probably won't stop him in 2012) him from running in 2008!
I'm sitting here assuming the current Prez is planning on running on his "accomplishments" Oh wait, that won't work, he will probably just run on class warfare again.
Barbour's lack of passion is directly related to his lack of voter enthusiasm for him. Add his attempt to rewrite southern Jim Crow history and his lobbying jobs, etc., and I doubt he could survive the inevitable media scrutiny. Barbour lost his campaign within a few weeks of announcing his exploratory committee.
The last "reasonable" republican was Gerald Ford. Reagan was the con artist selling trickle down voo doo that never trickled down--we're still waiting for the benefits of that GOP ideology to impact us but the only impact has been massive deficit and debt and lost jobs.
Is there going to be this much analysis every time a Republican decides not to run? Cause I'm kind of bored already.
I hope so. The public needs to see the underbelly of the Republican Party. They aren't what they may seem to be.
I am so tired of the pro Haley Barbour posts. Someone refute what I posted below as not being fact...please. Is there any question this pile of baggage influenced his decision.
Haley Barbour, a Republican political operative and moved up the ranks of Republican organizing quickly. Barbour was the Republican nominee for the U.S. Senate election in Mississippi, but was defeated by longtime incumbent John C. Stennis, a conservative Democrat, 64% to 36%, despite an endorsement by President Ronald Reagan.[5] During the campaign, the New York Times reported that a Barbour aide complained about "coons" at a campaign event. Barbour, embarrassed that the comment was overheard by a reporter, told the aide that he would be "reincarnated as a watermelon and placed at the mercy of blacks" if he continued making racist comments.[6]
Barbour has been described as "one of Washington's all-time mega-lobbyists."[8] He "was a wealthy K Street lobbyist for giant corporations such as RJ Reynolds, Philip Morris, Amgen, Microsoft, United Health, Southern Company, and many others."[9] In 1991, Barbour helped found the lobbying group now known as BGR Group,[10] a Washington, D.C.-based lobbying firm, with Ed Rogers, a lawyer who formerly worked in the George H. W. Bush administration. In 1994, Lanny Griffith (also a former Bush administration appointee) joined the firm.
In 1998, Fortune magazine named Barbour Griffith & Rogers the second-most-powerful lobbying firm in America.[11] In 2001, after the inauguration of George W. Bush, Fortune named it the most powerful.[12] The firm "is employed by several foreign countries, as well as oil and cigarette companies."[8] Its role in advocating on behalf of the tobacco industry has been particularly prominent.[13] BGR also "lobbied on behalf of the Embassy of Mexico in 2001 to promote a bill related to Section 245(i) of the Immigration and Nationality Act. This provision would have provided a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants in the United States, through family connections or job skills, without a requirement that they return to their home country for the requisite 3-10 years. This is what's often referred to as 'amnesty.'"[14] "As part of that work, Barbour's firm arranged meetings and briefings with 'Senators, members of Congress and their staffs, as well as Executive Branch Officials in the White House, National Security Council, State Department, and Immigration & Naturalization Service'. Barbour's firm charged Mexico $35,000 a month, plus expenses."[15]
As of 2010, the firm remains one of DC's top 25 but has seen revenues drop both in 2009 and in 2010.[16] Barbour continues to "collect[] payments from BGR through a blind trust, which was recently valued at $3.3 million."[8]
After two decades in Washington, D.C., Barbour announced in 2003 his intention to run for governor of Mississippi. During the campaign a controversy arose when Barbour chose to speak at the Blackhawk Rally, a fundraiser for the Blackhawk "council school" in Blackhawk, Mississippi. Such "council schools", also referred to in Mississippi lexicon as "academies", were established by the White Citizens' Council movement in reaction to the demands for racial integration by the American Civil Rights movement. The Blackhawk rally was hosted by the Council of Conservative Citizens (CCC), a racist organization. A photograph of Barbour with CCC members appeared on the CCC webpage, and some commentators and pundits demanded that Barbour ask for his picture to be removed from the site, but Barbour refused. Barbour stated that "Once you start down the slippery slope of saying, 'That person can't be for me,' then where do you stop? ... I don't care who has my picture. My picture's in the public domain."
On an April 11, 2010, appearance on CNN, host Candy Crowley asked if it had been insensitive for Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell to omit mentioning slavery in a proposed recognition of Confederate History Month. Barbour replied, "To me, it's a sort of feeling that it's a nit, that it is not significant, that it's not a—it's trying to make a big deal out of something doesn't amount to diddly."[5
Really? Was this man a viable candidate for POTUS?
Was George W. Bush a viable candidate to defeat a sitting Vice President?
To a lot of people, the answer is, sadly, still yes. And every day that goes by, the crazy and revisionist Confederacy mindset seems to get stronger.
Thus, I conclude someone must have photographs of Barbour in bed with ....
With ....
Oh, never mind. You're right.
Terrific post, Ira Lapin. Says a lot about Barbour and why he should never be president.
I don't know, seems cut n dry to me. Haley initially thought he had 'fire in his belly'. He also believed that's what voters deserved from their candidate. A few weeks passed, he then realized he still has fire in his belly, but it was more literal like indigestion vs. figuratively like passion. Being the pragmatist he is, he still believes in the passion the voters deserve, he's just not the one who has it.
Cut n dry. : )
 I guess he couldn't get his white hood cleaned in time for the election.
LoL I'd say something about stains, but it would probably get us both collapsed. ;-)
This pretty much sums up the GOP:
Obama is weak, feeble, unsubstantial, indecisive, frail, lightweight, fragile, impotent and debilitated President.
And nobody wants to face him.
http://blackwaterdog.wordpress.com/
LoL Exactly, Pat. It's an even worse crop than they put out for picking over in 2008.
You can butter it anyway you like, but field corn is still field corn.
Anna, I still don't get the attraction to Romney. At all. And his "peacetime" mistake yesterday was huge, regardless of what people might say. It was careless and callous.
He gives me the creeps. They all do in the GOP. There's a dictatorship quality to all of them.
Glad to see citizens giving it right back to them at the Town Halls all across the nation.
Agreed. They're authoritarians, for sure. Like little kids pounding on the table demanding to get their way.
And they may turn out to be the best thing that ever happened to democracy in this country ... since democracy.
Pat, Boston, MA
This pretty much sums up the GOP:
Obama is weak, feeble, unsubstantial, indecisive, frail, lightweight, fragile, impotent and debilitated President.
And nobody wants to face him.
That is exactly why Boss Hog dropped out. I'll give Fat boy credit for being a realist.
Bev, I don't agree with his politics but it is outright rude to call him names. You wouldn't like it if the shoe was on the other foot and someone was calling you names. It is just plain childish and immature.
I'd say blackwaterdog nailed it. The only way republicans can defeat President Obama is to keep beating the weak, ineffective, birther/Kenyan drum YET his record shows anything but weak and ineffective. Agree, today's crop of GOP/TPers do have a dictator-like quality.
Jody,
Are you saying Obama will run on his record of being strong and effective? Seriously? Are you better off than you were two years ago? Most people aren't and it all starts at the top. I am looking forward to election night 2012 no matter who the republican candidate is we should have a new president.
I can't speak for Jody; but I am MUCH better off than I was 2 and 3 years ago. And my 401K is much better. My desire to travel abroad, GREATLY improved.
This idea that he hasn't done anything, doesn't deserve accolades, isn't smarter than most if not all of the opposition,...well it's pure fantasy. Much like unicorns and pots of gold. Republicans are NOT winning on the issues. They clearly don't have any IDEAS to create jobs (which IS what the ran on) and as their dirty little agenda continues to unfold, MOST Americans (that means a majority - check your polls) are supporting President Obama. The man who doesn't need to play gutter politics. No matter how much the other side wants to stand in the gutter and INSIST that he come down to their level.
So, yeah, I would say as a COUNTRY we are much BETTER off. Oh, and REAL grassroots movements actually start at the bottom. This TOP DOWN mentality has NEVER really worked.
So, Bottom's Up!
Hot Air's Allahpundit isn't thinking things through if he thinks Barbour would be a good VP candidate for someone like Daniels. Isn't the campaign role of the VP candidate to attack the President? How can he do that if it's the very thing that's holding him back from running for president himself against an African-American?
Two very Republican governors with key ties to the legacy of the George W. Bush administration and to Washington lobbying are hardly going to rewrite the election. After a long series of governors -turned-President (Nixon, Carter, Reagan, Clinton, George W. Bush). people opted out of the governor's carousel. Gov. Palin, Gov. Pawlenty, Gov. Huckabee, Gov. Daniels, Gov. Barbour, Gov. Christie, Gov. Johnson -- it's not what people want right now. One of the reasons that Rep. Ron Paul has some traction is because he at least is aware of how Washington works, what votes have come up, what he has done about them. It's very telling that in spite of several years of majority status in Congress and in the Senate, in spite of eight years of the Bush administration, there are no Republicans with federal experience ready and willing to lead.
kate:
Excellent analysis and food for thought. I'm beginning to believe that there will be a Republican who will change his mind and decide to run.
I doubt Ron Paul will win anything.
One problem some had with McCain in 2008 was that he was 72 but in 2012 Paul will be 77.
Ursula-279622
Hot Air's Allahpundit isn't thinking things through if he thinks Barbour would be a good VP candidate for someone like Daniels
Hot Air is not tihnking about all that excess baggage Barbour has like: his long history as a tobacco lobbyist; his love for the Confederate flag; heaping praise on the pro-segregation in Yazoo City MI; and the release of 2 black female sisters in exchange for 1 kidney.
There is no GOP/T-Bagger Barbour can latch on to. They are all full of horsesh!t
Oppsy, my time lapsed.
There is no GOP/T-Bagger Barbour can latch on to. They are all full of horsesh!t.
All they want is power and more tax cuts for the rich.
Bev--Republicans are trying to push through the agenda of the rich in a time when everyone else is struggling. They have overplayed their hand and President Obama has all the cards. The economy is improving, gas prices will ease and the tea-bagger strategy that the GOP is hiding behind is coming apart. Who will lead the path to reduce our debt? Not Republicans, the Ryan plan adds 6 trillion.
Tom before the last election I thought there was no way any reasonable person would believe the propaganda and out and out lies the Republicans were spewing forth, apparently I was mistaken or there are not many reasonable people around. Historically speaking the voting public can be counted on to vote against their own best interest most vigorously and in great numbers, it's what the Republicans depend on, and our supreme court said they could spend as much money as their corporate handlers can feed them this go around, the airwaves will be clogged with dishonest Republican sound bites, and we have a press that will not question the validity of a damn one of them. All we can do is hope for the best.
Tom ,Yreka
Bev--Republicans are trying to push through the agenda of the rich in a time when everyone else is struggling.
That's why they lie. You'd think by now struggling the republicans would know people can't buy their lies anymore.
Who will lead the path to reduce our debt? Not Republicans, the Ryan plan adds 6 trillion.
I can't wait to see how Ryan will be received at his town hall. He was booed by republicans last time.
Like I said earlier the Republicans know they have no plan other than to hoodwink the public out of true democracy in place of their anti-libertarian anti-government stance so what they do is conjure fear, hate, ultra religiosity, and faux patriotism.
This birthism thing is just off the hook.
Geez, who cares about Boss Hogg not running for President? Why not an article about how fuel prices are causing the cost of everything to skyrocket? Even more interesting would be why the silence in the beltway about this economy killing phenomena? Or another topic that was swiftly swept under the beltway rug after the last election, WHERE THE HELL ARE ALL THE JOBS THE REPUBLICANS PROMISED? First Read can do better.
Haley Barbour has proven to be the smartest of the presumed GOP contenders. He knows he never had a chance. I wonder when Romney will realize it. His Mormon faith, RomneyCare, and now this senseless statement about this being "peacetime" all add up to zero chance for Romney. Is he smart enough to realize that? Is Donald Trump smart enough to realize he also has zero chance? We'll see. If the GOP field is thin enough, maybe Ron Paul will emerge and we'll have a real horse race.
President Obama should not have to defend ending subsidies that billionaire corporations are getting. This is corporate welfare that is vulgar when people are going without in America and we have the deficit that the GOP is supposedly so concerned about. How pathetic that republicans will never increase taxes for billionaires and will never cut subsidies for billionaire corporations. People should realize that the GOP is in bed with corporate greed and corporate welfare but against reasonable benefits for Americans.